Owls Deployed to Fight Rice-Eating Rats

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Farmers fighting rice-eating rats on Indonesia’s Sumatra island have a new weapon in their arsenal – a flock of owls.

Local officials released 30 of the birds of prey in villages last week. They have since killed around 150 rats each night, said agricultural department head Mangsuri Thaib.

“The farmers here are very happy with the results so far,” he said Monday from Sumatra’s Bengkulu town, 300 miles northwest of Jakarta.

Thaib said farmers were still using rat poison alongside the owls.

Elsewhere in Indonesia, authorities have released snakes to combat rats that attack crops of rice, the staple food for the country’s 210 million people.